DU lawyers: do sealed indictments have to be public? IF Rove were indicted

[Lerkfish]

but the indictment was sealed, would we ever HAVE to know about it before the trial?

Just curious about the nature of sealed indictments.

[elehhhhna]

1. They are made public after the perp is in custody or has bonded out.

[endarkenment]

2. Not a lawyer but generally sealed

means sealed until arraignment, either to avoid alerting other targets or as part of a bargaining process with the target.

[onenote]

3. federal rule (crim procedure) 6(b)(4)

As I understand it, the indictment would only stay sealed until such time as the indictee makes his/her first court appearance.


http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/Rule6.htm

(4) Sealed Indictment.

The magistrate judge to whom an indictment is returned may direct that the indictment be kept secret until the defendant is in custody or has been released pending trial. The clerk must then seal the indictment, and no person may disclose the indictment's existence except as necessary to issue or execute a warrant or summons.

[Peace Patriot]

4. My understanding is that sealed indictments are SEALED indictments.

They never become public unless and until the prosecutor decides to prosecute, then they MUST become public. Can't prosecute without making the charges public--it's unconstitutional (exept for when the president decides on his own authority that anybody he picks up in any country, including this one, is guilty for secret reasons, and can therefore be held indefinitely and tortured without any procedures of any kind; and, in that case, a prosectutor, soldier, spy or private military contractor can do anything he likes, if he's in with the Bushites).

I'm not a lawyer, but studied Constitutional law in college, and have a natural citizen's interest in what the law can and can't do--in the Old Republic. The Plame case is proceeding under Old Republic rules, so far as I know. That is, according to law.